Joseph McCarthy is a hard sell in Appleton, Wis., where few markers note him or his place in history as the '50s famed communist inquisitor

As the legendary patron saint of broadcast news, Edward R. Murrow, moved into town this weekend to slay the widely despised U.S. senator from Wisconsin in the new movie "Good Night, and Good Luck," there is hardly a public acknowledgment here that the self-styled warlord of anti-communism, the man whose name became an --ism, was once a popular hometown boy of humble origins.

Today there is scant evidence that Joseph Raymond McCarthy even lived here. There's a road outside of town named after his family. McCarthy's heroic-size bronze bust that for decades was spat upon in the county administration building in Appleton is now safe from such public assaults; it's in the Outagamie Museum--locked in storage. The most public remembrance of McCarthy--his marble gravestone in St. Mary's Cemetery, overlooking the Fox River--is flanked by potted mums and tulips. They are fake.

Now comes the critically acclaimed movie that lionizes Murrow and shows, in black-and-white footage, McCarthy's tragic self--bullying and thuggish and on the road to being censured by his colleagues in the Senate. If there were ever a time for the locals to rally to his defense, it would be now. But the galloping cavalry is nowhere in sight.

No second chance

In a nation that forgives vilified presidents, grants childish and churlish celebrities second, third and fourth chances, and even romanticizes the exploits of killers like Billy the Kid, Al Capone and Jesse James, Joe McCarthy burns in a marketing hell, nearly a half-century after his death.

To say that Appleton, a thriving city of 71,000, has an awkward relationship with its most notorious son is like saying Florida has issues with hurricanes.

"There's not a lot of lingering romance about blacklisting," said Lynn Peters, executive director of the Fox Cities Convention and Visitors Bureau, where rows of glossy tourism pamphlets ignore McCarthy. Recognition of McCarthy's civic contribution is contained in a thin blue folder, kept behind the front counter. Inside are about a half-dozen yellowing newspaper articles.

The Outagamie Museum presented a two-year retrospective on McCarthy that ended last year. It attracted the historically curious as well as political junkies. But all of that memorabilia is in storage.

"He's certainly a figure that interests people, but he's not a community booster," said Kimberly Louagie, the museum's curator of exhibits.

A consistent, albeit lonely voice of support for McCarthy comes from the Appleton-based John Birch Society, which published an attack on "Good Night, and Good Luck" in the latest issue of its magazine, The New American.

"We think he's the most unfairly maligned public figure in the 20th Century," said William Grigg, a senior editor at the magazine. "He became a hate figure of the Establishment ... and the movie is an attempt to reinflate the ogre."

Grigg, 42, conceded that he will likely not live to see the rehabilitation of McCarthy but he is confident that, over time, McCarthy's pursuit of communist spies--if not his tactics--will be vindicated.

"We simply cannot outbid the marketing power of Hollywood and other instruments of mass opinion," Grigg said.

In marketing-minded Appleton, McCarthy is the item that simply cannot be sold, which is why the city's other famous son--magician Harry Houdini --is the undisputed favorite.

You can buy Harry Houdini bumper stickers, posters, videos, books, tie tacks, magnets, keys, squished pennies, T-shirts and, for $7.50, Harry Houdini socks. But you won't find, say, a commemorative Joe McCarthy coffee mug or a poster of the senator waving a list of names of known communists working at the State Department.

"Joe was the victim of his own public-relations nightmare," said the visitors bureau's Peters. Unlike formerly unpopular presidents who had years to reinvent themselves and restore their image after leaving office, "there wasn't any way to spin McCarthy in a positive way," Peters added.

Hard-core supporters

Every May 2, on the anniversary of McCarthy's death, a dwindling and aging group of supporters gathers at his grave to remember and discuss ways to repair their hero's image.

"This is probably the only town in America where you could find people who had good things to say about Joe McCarthy. To them, McCarthy died on the cross of anti-communism," said Jerald Podair, a history professor at Lawrence University.

They, however, represent a tiny minority, said Podair, who tells of people stopping at St. Mary's Cemetery to urinate on McCarthy's grave.